Melvin T. Mason is an African American politician who ran as Socialist Workers Party candidate in the 1984 US Presidential election. “Mel” was born 1943 in Providence, KY. He and his family later moved to Seaside, CA, where Melvin prospered as a basketball player on the amateur and collegiate levels. Mason seemed to leave his mark everywhere he went, he was an educator for 40 years before retiring in 2006. Mason was a member of the Black Panther Party, NAACP, Socialist Party also a director, mental health practitioner, served in the military and was a counselor.